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HemsHollow

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Stephen Reid edited this page Oct 2, 2026 · 7 revisions

"Mind the East Wall, love. And if you're passing the square, stop and listen a while. It all helps."
-- A HemsHollow saying, offered to every traveller at the gate

HemsHollow is a small and shabby border town on The Fraying, on what was once believed to be the very hem of the world. Its East Wall faces the Void, and the Void's tendrils and blisters are always there, pressing against it, threatening to bloom and consume the town. HemsHollow is held together by patches, stubbornness, and a small group of travelling storytellers who arrived one day, realised the town could not survive without them, and never left.

At a Glance
Known as The Town of Ever Telling
Type Settlement
Region The Fraying
Residents The townsfolk of HemsHollow, and the EverAfters
Notable residents Peg PomPocket, Hattie HardBack, the EverAfters
Core Thread Spirit
Famous for The Battle of HemsHollow
Themes Endurance, Community, Hope, Storytelling

The Town

HemsHollow is not a pretty town, and it has never pretended to be. Its roofs are patched with whatever was to hand, its windows do not match, and its crooked little streets all lean very slightly westwards, as though the whole town were quietly edging away from the East Wall. Doors are painted in leftover colours. Fences are mended with string. Everything in HemsHollow has been fixed at least twice.

It is a small place, with one bakery, one well, one bridge and one library - the HemsHollow Lending Library, a crooked little building stacked with every story the town has ever told, kept by its fierce and devoted librarian, Hattie HardBack. At its heart is the town square, and in the square stands the wagon stage of the EverAfters, where the stories never stop.

The East Wall

The East Wall is the oldest thing in HemsHollow, and the most mended. Beyond it, the land runs out into the Drift, and then into the emptiness of the Void. The Void is never far from the Wall. Thin oily threads of Void Creep feel their way across its stones, and on the far side, soft Void Blisters swell against it like bruises in the cloth. The colour has long since drained from the eastern edge of town, and the houses nearest the Wall are pale and quiet.

The townsfolk patch the Wall every evening, stone by stone and stitch by stitch, but everyone in HemsHollow knows that patching is not what holds it. What holds it is the telling.

The EverAfters

Main article: The EverAfters

Years ago, a small troupe of travelling storytellers rolled into HemsHollow on a ramshackle wagon that folds open into a stage. They meant to stay a single night. They set up in the square and began to tell, and as they told, the townsfolk noticed something they had never seen before: the grey threads on the East Wall were drawing back. The blisters on the far side were shrinking. For the first time in living memory, a little colour crept back into the houses by the Wall.

In the morning, the storytellers packed up their wagon to leave. Before they had reached the end of the street, the Creep came crawling back over the stones and the blisters swelled up fatter than ever. The storytellers looked at the Wall, and at the town, and at each other. Then they turned the wagon round, unfolded the stage, and began again.

They have never stopped since. Threadlings call them the EverAfters, because they will be telling stories in HemsHollow ever after, and they make sure every story they tell ends with a happy ever after too. They take it in shifts, one group telling while the others rest, day and night, through rain and snow, so that there is never a single moment in HemsHollow without a story being told. The town looks after them in return. Someone always brings them hot soup and blankets, and the townsfolk keep a Listening Rota, so that there is always at least one person sitting in the square, listening, because a story needs a listener as much as it needs a teller.

The Troupe

The EverAfters are ten strong. See The EverAfters for the full troupe.

"We came to tell one story. Turns out this town needed them all."
-- Tolly TellTwice - The EverAfters

WonderWings in HemsHollow

For a town on the very edge of the Fraying, HemsHollow sees a remarkable number of WonderWings, more than almost anywhere else in Threadbare. They gather above the EverAfters' stage whenever a story is being told, and the troupe are rumoured to be able to still them and speak with them, above all Winn WellWhisper, on whose shoulders they have been seen to rest for the length of a whole story. The University of the Unseen has sent many scholars to find out how, and all have come home with nothing to report. Many say this is where the EverAfters' never-ending supply of fresh stories comes from.

The Battle of HemsHollow

A town that never stops telling stories is a town that holds the Void at bay. It is also, to a Storyvore, a feast that never ends. HemsHollow is most famous for the night a pack of Storyvores came for its stories and its Library, and the PomPuff Collector Peg PomPocket lured them all into a cage of PomPuffs, waited until they fell asleep, and then lowered them, cage and all, into the Void. All that came back up was the tattered end of the rope. Not a single story was lost. See The Battle of HemsHollow.

Narrative Function

HemsHollow shows, as clearly as anywhere in Threadbare, that stories and the people who share them are what hold the world together. It is shabby, brave and kind, a place where nothing is fancy but everything matters, and it is a natural home for quests on the edge of the Fraying: patching the Wall, taking a turn on the Listening Rota, bringing new stories for the EverAfters to tell, and keeping Storyvores away from the Library.

For Contributors

  • The stories never stop. There is always a story being told in the square. Scenes set in HemsHollow can include the EverAfters telling in the background, day or night.
  • The Void is always there. The East Wall is a constant, quiet danger, but the town is never overrun. Its tone is brave and warm, not hopeless.

Connections

Resources

Images

TBC

Audio and source files

TBC

The Troupe

The EverAfters are ten strong:

  • Clem CurtainCall
  • Endil EncoresEdge
  • Tolly TellTwice
  • Luve LimeLight
  • Petti PlotPatch
  • Mo MiniMime
  • Fili FullFarce
  • Tillet TumbleTale
  • Craw ChorusCall
  • Winn WellWhisper

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